[With an Accent]

This, I believe, was from June 2010.

On the cassette, a woman is being interviewed. Pauses make it extremely obvious which answer goes with which question. The answers are spoken slowly, at well below speed, and then repeated at the same pace.

The candidate must decide how old Miranda is. They must tick '17', '18' or '19'.

The answer on the cassette, given in isolation after the question (in Dutch) 'How old are you?', is 'Zeventien.'

In case you're wondering, Dutch phonetics are not so far removed from English so as to make this anything other than blindingly obvious to someone who had never learned a word of the language.

Now, I know this is just one mark, but what exactly are they testing?! Never mind that even a G-grade student should be familiar with the question and the numbers up to 20, I think a U-grade one might be able to make the connection!

It is just one mark. But if I had got it on a paper I think I might have had difficulty not cracking up!

[Dmon1Unlimited]

Is the answer 18?

[The Polymath]

(Original post by With an Accent)
This, I believe, was from June 2010.

On the cassette, a woman is being interviewed. Pauses make it extremely obvious which answer goes with which question. The answers are spoken slowly, at well below speed, and then repeated at the same pace.

The candidate must decide how old Miranda is. They must tick '17', '18' or '19'.

The answer on the cassette, given in isolation after the question (in Dutch) 'How old are you?', is 'Zeventien.'

In case you're wondering, Dutch phonetics are not so far removed from English so as to make this anything other than blindingly obvious to someone who had never learned a word of the language.

Now, I know this is just one mark, but what exactly are they testing?! Never mind that even a G-grade student should be familiar with the question and the numbers up to 20, I think a U-grade one might be able to make the connection!

It is just one mark. But if I had got it on a paper I think I might have had difficulty not cracking up!

Anyone who's taken GCSE languages knows this Our invigilators were struggling to keep a straight face at how ridiculously easy the first few pages of our french GCSE listening was

I showed a native German (who appreciates second language learning, being fluent in English) my German GCSE paper, and he literally laughed Something needs to be done. Gove is promoting languages, making GCSE languages easier, and as a result we end up with a generation of students who can barely speak the languages they've learnt, and any who continue to A-level then end up with the sharp schock of realising that only about 250 students in the whole country get an A* in German each year, the vast majority of whom are probably native.

[bahjat93]

(Original post by With an Accent)
This, I believe, was from June 2010.

On the cassette, a woman is being interviewed. Pauses make it extremely obvious which answer goes with which question. The answers are spoken slowly, at well below speed, and then repeated at the same pace.

The candidate must decide how old Miranda is. They must tick '17', '18' or '19'.

The answer on the cassette, given in isolation after the question (in Dutch) 'How old are you?', is 'Zeventien.'

In case you're wondering, Dutch phonetics are not so far removed from English so as to make this anything other than blindingly obvious to someone who had never learned a word of the language.

Now, I know this is just one mark, but what exactly are they testing?! Never mind that even a G-grade student should be familiar with the question and the numbers up to 20, I think a U-grade one might be able to make the connection!

It is just one mark. But if I had got it on a paper I think I might have had difficulty not cracking up!

I think it's a pretty hard question, then again i never learnt Dutch loool.
You'd have to actually have never learnt Dutch to mess up on this question

[bishbash72]

Why would anyone take a Dutch GCSE?

[Dmon1Unlimited]

(Original post by Junaid96)
Anyone who's taken GCSE languages knows this Our invigilators were struggling to keep a straight face at how ridiculously easy the first few pages of our french GCSE listening was

I showed a native German (who appreciates second language learning, being fluent in English) my German GCSE paper, and he literally laughed Something needs to be done. Gove is promoting languages, making GCSE languages easier, and as a result we end up with a generation of students who can barely speak the languages they've learnt, and any who continue to A-level then end up with the sharp schock of realising that only about 250 students in the whole country get an A* in German each year, the vast majority of whom are probably native.

What do you think about exam boards incorporating material made by third party companies such as Rosetta stone into their syllabus? I heard its alright.

So basically students would be learning this under the supervision of the exam boards.

[The Polymath]

(Original post by Callum828)
Why would anyone take a Dutch GCSE?

I'm going with to learn Dutch. Possibly just for lols, but most likely to learn Dutch.

(Original post by Dmon1Unlimited)
What do you think about exam boards incorporating material made by third party companies such as Rosetta stone? I heard its alright.

So basically students would be learning this under the supervision of the exam boards.

No, I don't like it. Rosetta Stone is rubbish and it's too hard to have unbiased fair exams controlled by a profit-making company.

Edit: I should probably justify that - as humans with a language under our belt we have the means to communicate ideas in our language, and so we should when we learn another. Children don't have that advantage, so they learn in a different way. We are no longer children, our brains have actually been proven to have changed to stop giving us that ability to just 'pick up' a language, and we need to actually learn the language actively.

[Dmon1Unlimited]

(Original post by Junaid96)
No, I don't like it. Rosetta Stone is rubbish and it's too hard to have unbiased fair exams controlled by a profit-making company.

hence the supervision by exam boards.

Are there not versions for various ages? I'm sure there are ones for teen/adults based on the adverts

[The Polymath]

(Original post by Dmon1Unlimited)
hence the supervision by exam boards.

Still, see my thoughts on Rosetta stone.

[kasten]

(Original post by Junaid96)
that only about 250 students in the whole country get an A* in German each year

Is that really true?!

[bishbash72]

(Original post by Junaid96)
I'm going with to learn Dutch. Possibly just for lols, but most likely to learn Dutch.

And why would anyone want to learn Dutch? Apart from for lols, obviously.

[The Polymath]

(Original post by kasten)
Is that really true?!

Oops bit off it's around 500. Still, it's hardly anything.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/ed...tml/german.stm I think it was about 250 boys that I worked out.

(Original post by Dmon1Unlimited)
hence the supervision by exam boards.

Are there not versions for various ages? I'm sure there are ones for teen/adults based on the adverts

Yes, but they all discourage use of your native language, and do things like showing a picture and playing the word for the object etc. that type of learning is for children. We need to learn normally (i.e. how we do in school) and once we've picked up the grammar, which we won't otherwise be able to learn, then we can head into immersion to pick up the vocab.

[The Polymath]

(Original post by Callum828)
And why would anyone want to learn Dutch? Apart from for lols, obviously.

They might be applying for German and Dutch somewhere (Dutch is just like German and English - English is I am, German is ich bin, dutch is ik ben ). I was watching Sherlock a few months back and he took a book off a german man, who said "gib mir mein buch!" (give me my book!) - I wasn't sure if it was german or englisch )

[Juno]

You're forgetting - or maybe just not realising - that there are people who actually know nothing. Some students genuinely won't be able to tell the answer. These questions are designed to weed out the students who can do nothing from the ones who can do something, but not much. If all the questions were hard then all the students with less ability would score zero. It's the same idea as distinguishing A* from A.

Even with the better students some might not really know the basics, and others might not pay attention. So whilst it's an easy mark for you, some of the more able students may lack focus to answer the stuff they see as stupid.

[Old Father Time]

Being a language student at GCSE and A level (German) I must say that I thought the gap between the two was big. I mean, A level German was tough. The speaking was great, but the writing was very difficult. I think the standard of writing at GCSE is so bad that it makes the step up too difficult. Good, intelligent students in my class struggled with the A level over two years. Only the natives seemed to excel whilst the rest of us struggled. I think the reason why we found it most difficult, is because we barely understood our own language. For example, many phrases were used which none of us really properly understood in English, such as what an infinitive was. There are many other examples but that is always the one which springs to mind. We were effectively trying to learn English Language and German at the same time and this was very costly in terms of time.

[Mr Cheese]

(Original post by Juno)
You're forgetting - or maybe just not realising - that there are people who actually know nothing. Some students genuinely won't be able to tell the answer. These questions are designed to weed out the students who can do nothing from the ones who can do something, but not much. If all the questions were hard then all the students with less ability would score zero. It's the same idea as distinguishing A* from A.

Even with the better students some might not really know the basics, and others might not pay attention. So whilst it's an easy mark for you, some of the more able students may lack focus to answer the stuff they see as stupid.

Honestly, if someone would be trying to learn Dutch and doesn't see the resemblance between seventeen, siebzehn and zeventien I don't know what they're doing at such a course.

To the main topic - That honestly is stupidly easy, but then again, I'm a native Dutch speaker, but I reckon even for someone that never spoke the language a question like that would be easy.

In terms of why the heck you'd be studying Dutch goes beyond me, apart from the lulz I would, if I weren't from the Netherlands, never ever study Dutch. The language is hardly useful, since 99% of the people here know at least how to converse on a "Hi, how are you?" level, if they don't they're either very old or just plain retarded. Probably even your local baker Hans knows English here .

I know a few guys from England that want to learn how to speak Dutch, but as I said, they're only doing it for the lulz, rather than it actually being useful.

In terms of the resemblance with the German language, I deny everything....

[willbee]

Well, it makes sense to me, because I always thought listening was the hardest part of language exams. I could speak (just about) and read and write, but listening requires thinking at someone else's speed. That seems more difficult, so to make up for it perhaps it should be slightly easier?

[doloroushazy]

(Original post by Old Father Time)
Being a language student at GCSE and A level (German) I must say that I thought the gap between the two was big. I mean, A level German was tough. The speaking was great, but the writing was very difficult. I think the standard of writing at GCSE is so bad that it makes the step up too difficult. Good, intelligent students in my class struggled with the A level over two years. Only the natives seemed to excel whilst the rest of us struggled. I think the reason why we found it most difficult, is because we barely understood our own language. For example, many phrases were used which none of us really properly understood in English, such as what an infinitive was. There are many other examples but that is always the one which springs to mind. We were effectively trying to learn English Language and German at the same time and this was very costly in terms of time.

i too found that i had no idea of even the most basic points of english grammar when i started learning german grammar haha

[thatitootoo]

Goede tijden! I really miss GCSE & A-level Dutch!

[Kolya]

(Original post by Old Father Time)
I think the reason why we found it most difficult, is because we barely understood our own language. For example, many phrases were used which none of us really properly understood in English, such as what an infinitive was. There are many other examples but that is always the one which springs to mind. We were effectively trying to learn English Language and German at the same time and this was very costly in terms of time.

Just sounds like a poorly designed course, then.